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January 2013

This information is being made available for prospective law school applicants and others interested in the starting salaries of new law school graduates. Want to learn more about the entry-level job market for recent law school graduates? See NALP's annual Jobs & JDs report.

Median Reported Salaries by Employer Type in the 20 Cities Providing the Most Jobs
to the Class of 2011

PRIVATE PRACTICE

BUSINESS

GOVERNMENT

Median
Salary

# of Salaries Reported

Median
Salary

# of Salaries Reported

Median
Salary

# of Salaries Reported

Atlanta

$90,000

183

$80,000

47

$58,500

26

Baltimore

74,000

41

65,250

14

49,000

23

Boston

160,000

234

75,000

35

47,157

38

Chicago

100,000

530

65,000

80

55,937

68

Columbus

75,000

64

70,000

10

45,000

31

Dallas

135,000

177

70,000

34

55,500

10

Denver

100,000

85

62,500

21

60,840

21

Houston

115,000

271

65,000

59

57,696

22

Los Angeles

160,000

363

68,500

32

59,953

20

Miami

70,000

173

80,000

16

40,000

41

Minneapolis/St. Paul

100,000

113

63,500

34

48,000

9

New Orleans

93,000

59

—

—

50,000

9

New York City

160,000

1,507

75,000

187

60,000

123

Philadelphia

115,000

149

75,000

19

49,600

37

Phoenix

91,250

54

75,000

8

58,996

14

Pittsburgh

100,000

63

48,600

34

48,367

5

San Diego

85,000

104

80,000

25

60,000

17

San Francisco

145,000

220

75,000

33

66,000

22

Seattle

110,000

83

69,250

20

58,150

20

Washington, DC

160,000

545

67,500

62

62,467

354

Note: Figures are based on salaries for reported for full-time jobs lasting at least a year. The median is the mid-point in a ranking of reported salaries. However, because salaries in large firms are quite uniform and are disproportionately reported relative to salaries in small firms, law firm medians are generally more applicable to large firms in that city. In the case of Boston, Los
Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC, the median is best thought of as a prevailing salary since at least half of the reported firm salaries in these cities were $160,000. For these 20 cities as a whole, 46% of law firm salaries were reported as $160,000, followed by 5% reported as $145,000. However, the true percentage of law firm salaries at these amounts is less than that because of disproportionate reporting of salaries in large firms. The extent of that over-reporting varies from city to city depending on
the mix of firm sizes in each city. A dash indicates that fewer than five salaries were reported.

Source: NALP Employment Report and Salary Survey for the Class of 2011